The government today reported a surprise fall in the number of abortions performed in England and Wales.

There were 195,296 abortions in 2008, compared with 198,499 in 2007, a fall of 1.6%, the figures show.

The abortion rate for girls under 16 was also lower than in 2007, as was the rate among all girls under 18.

The data will come as a surprise to some health charities, which had been predicting the total number of abortions would pass 200,000 for the first time.

The data showed there were 1,097 abortions among under-15s in England and Wales in 2008.

Of those, 931 were carried out on 14-year-olds while 166 were among girls aged under 14.

Among girls aged 15 to 19, there were 41,593 abortions and 56,171 among women aged 20 to 24. Another 21 abortions were performed on women aged 50 and over.

The overall abortion rate among women of all ages was 18.2 per 1,000 women living in England and Wales aged 15 to 44, compared with 18.6 in 2007.

The abortion rate was highest at 36 per 1,000 for women age 19, the same as in 2007.

The under-16 abortion rate was 4.2 and the under-18 rate was 18.9 per 1,000 girls, both lower than in 2007.

A total of 68 abortions were among women who have had six previous abortions and another 46 were among women who have had seven or more.

Medical abortions, where the woman takes pills, accounted for 38% of all abortions in 2008.

Health minister Dawn Primarolo said: "It is good news that the number of abortions, including for those under-18 and under-16, has fallen since 2007.

"For both the under-18 and under-16 rates, there has been a percentage decrease of 4.5% in the last year.

"More abortions are now happening at under 10 weeks' gestation. This is a key priority for us – to reduce the time women have to wait at what is already a very difficult time.

"Contraception plays a vital role in preventing teenage pregnancy. Last year we invested £26.8m and have made a further £20.5m available this year to improve women's access to contraception and help reduce the number of abortions and teenage pregnancies.

"Clinics must also now provide post-abortion contraception for their clients, to drive down repeat abortions."

Gill Frances, chairwoman of the Teenage Pregnancy Independent Advisory Group, said: "The drop in teenage abortion is very encouraging and hopefully reflects a resumption in the longterm downward trend of teenage pregnancy.

"Many local areas have been making a huge effort to reduce teenage conceptions and we urge everyone to intensify their work to make real progress on this complex issue."